James Otto Lewis (American, 1799 to 1858)
James Otto Lewis was born in Michigan and began painting Native Americans in 1823. Between 1825 and 1828, the United States Indian Department commissioned him to attend treaty ceremonies. While at these ceremonies, Lewis rendered portraits and interviewed chiefs and subsequently published the first collection of native North American portraits, the North American Aboriginal Port-Folio. In 1835 the Aboriginal Portfolio was published in ten parts each containing eight plates of Indian chiefs – many of which Mr. Otto painted in the Great Lakes region. Mr. Otto also was the original artist for 27 of the 150 prints published in McKenney and Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of North America.
Information courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries, December 2008.